Weeks 5-6 What we thought:
Difficult/slow process to get funding for development Channels What we heard: “There’s lots of efficiencies in the acquisition process.” S&T, SBIR, BAAs, RRTO and CTTO offices… Field testing Before After

What we thought: Operators want
to have automatic detection AND classification of humans in video feed What we did: - Even more interviews! - Explore current technology (is classification feasible? At what confidence levels?) Weeks 7-9 Lesson: Soldiers need to trust the UAV to make accurate classifications. Object Detection is a good starting point

Week 9 MVP “How am
I supposed to feel vibration when I’m running around being shot at when I can’t feel my phone vibrate in my pocket walking to the bathroom?” “How does it know that someone is bad? I don’t want to go to jail…” “That’s badass” “Can you demo this in July” “I oddly feel more comfortable knowing there is a skynet drone watching out for me” Week 2 MVP From this... ...to this

What we learned About the
product Refrain from building a new system Integrate with prefered existing systems (ATAK) COTS system - flexible, less expensive About the process Get out of the building! Distill the common pains and gains Understand the customer Dig deep but look broad

The MVP Evolution “How am
I supposed to feel vibration when I’m running around being shot at when I can’t feel my phone vibrate in my pocket walking to the bathroom?” “I need to know without a doubt that they’re holding a gun and not a baby” “As far as recognition, that’s huge.” “Are you sure it’s not a baby? I really don’t want to go to jail.” V0.01 V0.1 Current

S&T Process - Prototype to
Product BAA for existing gap White Paper White Paper White Paper S&T PM (TBD) S&T PM’s Group of Operators Other operators who talk to operators in PM’s group Bureaucracy line Other operators who talk to operators in PM’s group S&T “Council”: S&T PMs + Director Engineer Proposal Contract Negotiations between business and PM: Statement of Work (COW); Contracts Data Requirements List (CDROLS) Step 1: find gap on fedbizops + submit whitepaper Step 2: All whitepapers get evaluated by operators and engineer Step 3: S&T PM brings selected white paper to “council” of PMs. They choose which projects to prioritize and fund. Step 4+5: Submit proposal and negotiate deliverables (CDROLS) and what you will do (COW) Step 0: “Free flowing” communication with operators and PM to show off product and get selected and prioritized

Skynet Origins Original Problem Statement:
Traditional UAV video platforms require a tactical operator to control the UAV and watch the video, which takes them out of the fight and has a high cognitive load. Our goal is to develop an - autonomous drone that flies routes autonomously and gives reliable threat information without forcing an operator to take his hands off the trigger or eyes off the scope. Our Initial Idea: Since the root of the problem is cognitive overload, which stems from poorly designed UI and UX systems, we aimed to create an improved Human-Drone Interaction system that could be scaled across platforms. 90 In Person interviews (30 people surveyed) Our product would target the Small Unmanned Aerial System (SUAS) market TAM SAM (SUAS) SOCOM 3,000 units 800-1000 units DOD 18,210 units 17,296 units